Is the GOP collapsing?

This question is the focus of fiery debates at Republican Party headquarters, big battles on the campaign trail, and hush-hush discussions in the back rooms of Congress.

If the answer is yes, the ensuing shock waves will not be limited to just one party. Nor will they be strictly political.

If it’s true that the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan is truly splintering, it could threaten America’s two-party democracy … radically change the government’s economic policies … and shake Wall Street to its core.

Indeed, right now …

A GOP collapse is precisely what many pundits are predicting …

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina says Republicans are in a “demographic death spiral.”

The New York Times writes, “the Republican Party is facing a historic split over its fundamental principles and identity.”

The Huffington Post goes even further, comparing it to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Their own words:

“The Soviet Union seemed permanent and invincible, until it didn’t. When it fell, far more suddenly than anyone thought it would or could, the festering rot of decades was exposed to the world. We’re seeing this happen, in real time, with the Republican Party.”

Who’s to blame?

Some among the party elites say it’s mostly Donald Trump’s fault.

Others blame themselves for not attacking Trump sooner.

Still others insist that the truly big blunder is neither of the above: It’s the fantasy of the establishment that they can somehow find a new base of voters as easily as the base can find a new establishment.

The crux of the dilemma, as seen from the perspective of party elites:

If the Stop Trump movement succeeds, they fear they’ll lose his voters in mass and forfeit the 2016 election in a landslide defeat. And …

If the Stop Trump movement fails, they fear a similar outcome.

What many pundits seem to be missing, or deliberately ignoring, is a bigger, more durable reality — namely that …

Republicans have made huge gains,and the GOP establishment won’tgive them up without a massive fight.

To understand why, look at America’s 50 states, and ask this simple question:

How many state governments are fully controlled by Republicans, including the governor’s mansion, the state senate and the state house?

And how many are fully controlled by Democrats?

The map below, from Ballotpedia, gives you the answers:

Republicans control 23 states; Democrats control only 7.

In other words …

In the battle for state governments, Republicans are
winning by a margin of better than three-to-one.

Or consider these two landmark changes:

Nearly every region: In the past, Republican control was often limited primarily to the nation’s midsection, while Democrats dominated on the East and West coasts.

Today, at least on the state government level, that dichotomy is mostly gone. Nearly all regions have swung heavily toward Republicans.

Indeed, with the exception of four of the nation’s smallest states — Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware — Republicans have full control or shared power in every state government east of the Mississippi.

The most populous states: Also in the past, most of the red states were those with smaller populations, while blue states typically had larger populations, a big advantage for Democrats.

But now, among the 10 most populous states in the nation, Republicans have full control in SIX states —

Texas, the nation’s 2nd largest

Florida, the 3rd largest

Ohio, #7

Georgia, #8

North Carolina, #9, and

Michigan, #10.

In contrast, Democrats control only ONE — California.

Thus …

In the battle for the 10 biggest demographic state
prizes, Republicans are winning six-to-one.

Does this state-level dominance guarantee a parallel dominance in presidential elections? Obviously not. Otherwise, John McCain or Mitt Romney would be in the White House today.

What it does guarantee, however, is GOP control over the infrastructure of American politics — who votes where.

The key is redistricting, whereby district borders are moved, voting maps are redrawn, and election results can be impacted for years to come.

A nonpartisan process? Rarely.

Want proof? Then check out the next map …

In 37 states, redistricting is controlled by the state legislatures (dark yellow on the map), which almost inevitably favor the dominant party of the state.

Meanwhile, only six states (green) have independent commissions — official bodies designed to make redistricting decisions that favor neither party.

So why is this such a big deal for Republicans? The answer becomes immediately obvious when you compare the two maps side by side …

See how the red areas in the first map roughly match the yellow areas in the second?

Meaning: Republicans control the legislatures in most of the same states where legislatures control redistricting.

Similarly, see how some of the blue areas in the first map match the green (or gray) areas in second?

Meaning: Even in states where Democrats control the government, they still don’t control redistricting.

In fact, among those last seven states that are still under full Democratic control, the legislature controls redistricting in only three of them.

In sum, among all 50 states in the Union, Democrats are down to just three where they still exert control over this critical process.

All this translates into a huge GOP asset: An unending series of small victories for Republicans; death by a thousand cuts for Democrats.

It gives the GOP powerful and enduring leverage not only over electoral redistricting, but also over control in Congress and, possibly, over the fate of future presidential elections for generations to come.

When the Dow Hits 31,000 …

We are on the cusp of the most profitable bull market of our lifetime. Stocks will be driven higher by powerful global undercurrents that Wall Street will either ignore or fail to understand. As the Dow doubles, some stocks will see explosive gains of 300%, 400%, 500% and more. Savvy investors who make the right moves will become very rich! Click here for my free report and to find out how it could make you rich beyond your dreams. – Larry

Internal Sponsorship

More Valuable Than the White House

This is a political bonanza for establishment Republican officials all across the USA. They have fought tooth and nail for it. They won’t give it up easily. And they will do whatever it takes to retain it.

Indeed, most feel that this kind of control is more valuable than any single national election, including the 2016 contest for the White House.

From their perspective, nothing could be worse than losing it. Not even four years under Hillary Clinton. They’ll accept defeat in that battle — as long as they can continue victorious in this bigger war.

What does this mean for 2016?

First, it means that, if push comes to shove, the Republican elite will dig an even deeper line in the sand to defend this hard-won turf.

Second, it means that a Democrat in the White House in 2017 may now be even more likely than most pundits think. I repeat: The Republican establishment cares less about this one battle (which many fear may already be lost) than about the big war (which they’re convinced they can continue winning).

Third, it could mean an end to America’s two-party system. If Trump wins the majority of Republican delegates but is denied the nomination, odds are strong that he will launch a third-party run. Similarly, if Trump wins the nomination, odds are also strong that at least some Republican leaders will flee to a third party.

War Cycles on Steroids

My colleague Larry Edelson, who long ago predicted this kind of turmoil in American society, recently sent me an email explaining it this way:

“What’s happening in the United States is more evidence of what’s happening right before our very eyes all over the world. It’s evidence of powerful long-term economic cycles that are calling for a massive sovereign debt crisis, geopolitical stress and revolution, civil wars, hoarding of money, and deflation.”

To tell us what YOU really think about this election, please go here to take our just-released poll.

Good luck and God bless!

Martin

Dr. Weiss founded Weiss Research in 1971 and has dedicated his entire career to helping millions of average investors find truly safe havens and investments. He is Chairman of the Weiss Group, which includes Weiss Research and Weiss Ratings, the nation’s leading independent rating agency accepting no fees from rated companies. His last three books have all been New York Times Bestsellers and his most recent title is The Ultimate Money Guide for Bubbles, Busts, Recession and Depression.

{103 comments }

John BowmanMonday, April 4, 2016 at 7:57 am

The Republican “Establishment” will likely be saved from (and for) themselves by the electorate. If not, its time to find a deserted island.

craig cameronSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 6:30 pm

Glen Beck and Mr. Lavin are trying to tell us what it takes to be a Republican (conservative). Who appointed them do determine who we should vote for. This country is center left not center right. Just look at all college students that are supporting a Socialist. The Republican Party has been taken over by right wing Christian radicles. Social Christian Conservatism has two loosing issues. Abortion is the law of the land and so is gay rights. Both these issues have been decided by the supreme court. Why does the republican party force candidates to swear allegiance to these loosing issues… it insures defeat in the general.
The idea that a social conservative can win in the general election is folly. How many years do republicans have to fail before they realize that a republican can not win by being a hard right social conservative. The republican candidate must move to the center and expand the republican tent. Just like Ronald Regan. Ted Cruze is hard right and will loose worse than Mitt Romney. Donald Trump is our only hope for moving to the middle and winning in the Fall. Do not let the Republican Establishment tell you how to vote. They have not won a presidential election in a while and will not win the next one if we nominate a hard right conservative like Mr. Cruze. You are about to witness the destruction of the Republican Party. I am not leaving the Republican Party they are leaving me. I for one will vote Democratic if Trump is not nominated.

Rex BradySunday, April 10, 2016 at 3:16 pm

The GOP will survive. Fiscal responsibility is the underpinning basis of conservatism. All the rest is fluff amplified by the media. There will be a day of social, fiscal, and international reckoning and it may as well be with a Dem. in the White House or an independent. Ross Perot entering late as an independent insured Clinton’s presidency. The big danger of the GOP losing the executive once again comes from Trump going independent when delegates abandon him. It is a time honored system that will likely nominate Cruz with Kasich as VP. Our parties are not constitutionally enacted. They are private organizations. Self interests will prevent dissolution of the GOP.

VictorMonday, April 4, 2016 at 8:11 am

But all those Republican states are following the Democrat national agenda. Many of those elections occurred during low turnout off year elections. Jan Brewer in Arizona and Mike Pence in Indiana are two more public examples of federal dominance but from school boards to the governor’s mansion, make no mistake, the Democrats control the agenda through a federal bureaucracy while Republicans acquiesce and the workers pay the toll.

kingscairnSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 7:37 pm

Well said !

Hobart TeagueMonday, April 4, 2016 at 8:11 am

Republicans have a majority but are not taking control. They vote for what Democrats want so we have had a one party system since 1912-1913 when the progressive third party split. There third party leaders splat and ran for Congress part in the Democrat party and part as Republicans. You can search political parties 1912-1913, Theodora Roosevelt and Taft election.

Rodney GriffithsMonday, April 4, 2016 at 8:11 am

A nice clear easily understandable argument. Do you think this makes the constitution moot because if the Federal Government loses the support of the individual states it becomes non relevant, an anachronism. Therefore the constitution becomes merely a historical document because the center has, no longer, any persuasive power only the ability to use force of arms to impose population supression.

RicTuesday, April 5, 2016 at 2:49 pm

Most of the states in the South were once “Southern-Democrats” which turned Republican after Democratic President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. They were once Democrats because after seceding from the US Federal Government, and renounced the US Constitution by forming the Confederate States, and after being physically forced backed into the Union, forced to re-accept the US Constitution, and forced to accept the 14th Amendment after they lost the American Civil War commanded by Lincoln, who was considered a co-founder of the Republican Party.

Although the Southern States were physically forced backed into the Union, their heart were not completely. Thus, President Grant pretty much let the South do as they pleased, so as to keep them in the Union without re-starting another civil war. As you posted above, a “force of arms” was once employed by Lincoln to keep these people under the US Constitution, and under the US Federal Government. However, as officials like Grant did, the North offered some compromises to win the “hearts and minds” of the South to rejoin the Union, as Grant allowed segregation, and other racist policies of the South to take place. After all, both Southern and Northern Founding Fathers first formed and built the United States of America, and both wrote the original US Constitution. Washington and Jefferson as well as other Southerners wanted and contributed to the formation of the US Constitution, and the US Federal Government, so that many if not most Southerners believe in democracy like the Northerners do. We have to assume that the majority of people both in North and South believes in democracy, and they all basically are patriots, who desires for the United States of America to succeed, even though there remains cultural differences that are severe, but not so severe so as to start another secession, or even another civil war of sorts.

For a country of large size, there can be many differences between regions of the country. Besides how to handle the legacy of race-based slavery pass down from the British colonial times in America, the south-west regions are oil rich, and the oil producing regions have economies heavily based on oil, and specially high oil prices. Other regions may take different religious views concerning issues such as abortion, and evolution. There are also differences on taxation of the rich, of the super-rich, and of the super-super-rich, and their corporations. Issues such as universal-health-care, outsourcing, labor-union-busting, illegal workers, illegal immigration on the southern border, whether corporations can have unlimited funding of election campaigns, whether it is ok for lobbyists to use huge funds to influence Congressmen to the benefit of large companies, etc. etc. Large countries have large numbers of issues between factions, and regions. When issues between regions and factions become insurmountable, severe conflicts can break out such as what occurred during the American Civil War, and during the Civil Rights Movement.

The Founding Fathers envisioned a system based on democracy, which had not seen the day of light since the democracy of ancient Athens felled around two thousand years before. Democracy is a system in which the vote of the majority ruled. In the US, the Founding Fathers formed a representative-democracy unlike ancient Athens, where it was a pure democracy (of citizens as Athens did not offer their slaves to vote.)

The Founding Fathers did first tried a loose federation of states just after the American Revolution was won from Britain. This was before the US Constitution was written. There were many problems of a loose federation of states without any strong central Federal Government. For example, the original thirteen states started to coin and print their money, charged tolls and tariffs at state borders, contributed little to nothing to the central Federal Government, and such. Some sort of chaos were breaking out, so that the Founding Fathers decided to strengthen the central Federal Government by writing the US Constitution to established a stronger central Federal Government that has more power than the states in certain areas.

A stronger Federal Government brought many benefits to the US, but it also precipitated problems. President Jefferson, presiding under a strong US Constitution, and a strong Federal Government, was able to use such stronger presidential power to complete the Louisiana Purchase, which double the size of the US, and which served as the launching pad to incorporate land to the west until the US span from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. The incorporation of new territories to the west created a big issue of whether slavery was to be allowed in the new territories. The framework of the US democracy was the majority vote to rule. When the South felt that the vote was going to not allow some of the new territories to have slaves, the South decided to secede from the Union, even though there was no movement by the central government to disband slave in any of the southern states. It seemed that in any large country, there would be people in regions wanting to secede and to rule as they see fit according to their own private world views. It is part of human nature. Even in a single family, some are close knit, while others want to do things apart. Teenagers are prone to want to do things differently from their parents. It is human nature that some people want extra independence from the group as individualists. It is also human nature that many people like to stick together, and they want to work as a group. Working together as a close knit group, the human species defeated and dominated animals much larger and stronger. Corporations of large working groups mass produce cars and other high technologies.

Some oil states once were so flushed with money that they think that they can buy everything, and they don’t need to depend on any other states, other than to sell their oil at high prices (by forming oil monopolies.) Now that oil prices are dropping with new fracking technologies that can extract oil from huge oil-shale formations like fracking technologies have enable vast amounts of frac-natural-gas to be extracted from similar shale-formations, the once high flying oil states are encountering some economic downturns with workers being layoff. It is not certain whether this oil price downturn is temporary, as they hope, or whether low oil prices are here to stay. If it is the later, then these states may become less high flying, and less independent. They may come to work with others as part of a group than working as individuals.

Don EdwardsSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 9:13 pm

Ric: You are incorrect that the Southern Democrats turned Republican after the 1964 Civil Rights Act was signed. They remained southern, they remained Democrats, and nearly all of them remained in office for years; the exceptions were mostly replaced by other Democrats. On average the seats occupied by southern Democrats who opposed that Act remained Democrat seats for more than twenty years thereafter.

If it was that Act that caused the South to go Republican, why did it take until the late 1970s and early 1980s to do so?

kingscairnSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 7:42 pm

The Second Amendment will never become irrelevant !

DanMonday, April 4, 2016 at 8:18 am

If Trump is the front runner and they somehow pass him up as the nominee that will kill the GOP. They (the GOP establishment) do not fully understand that the American people are fed up with the status quo. If they did they would embrace Trump and get a hugee victory. The Democratic establishment will see the people revolt against them next.

ReggieMonday, April 4, 2016 at 11:10 am

Absolutely agree 100%. After 2014, I vowed never to give them another penny. Anyone but Trump will continue the royal gravy train. He is an unknown and the only thing they care about is their own pocketbook. They forgot about us years ago.

fredMonday, April 4, 2016 at 2:12 pm

Two things. First, trumpers want to blow up the establishment. Sounds good but what’s left other than authoritarian rule. What do the people get out of it ? No one knows and yet they are for him even though he has no policies.

Second, how could that possibly be good for the economy ? Chaos is never good for the markets and trump predicted a massive recession just this morning. I agree that his policies to the extent they exist at all will cause just that.

Trumpers don’t seem to care. They just want to blow something up.

G13ManMonday, April 4, 2016 at 4:44 pm

boy u missed the mark FRED
we do not want to blow up the establishment !, We want to blow up the corrupt cronie insider establishment and let America become great again for the people on the backs of the people instead of gov , .1% , industrial complex & banks ; manipulating the laws for their profit , at the expense of America as a whole!
The dem & pubs are the ones pushing authoritarian rules .
And Trump predicting a recession , is just that from the indebtedness the politicians in office NOW have put this country into … And raising taxes for an ineffective bureaucratic paper pushing group .
And his policies are what is already their till he amends all these buffalo chips.

GlenMonday, April 4, 2016 at 6:04 pm

What do you call worthless money? Recession …. runaway inflation? Neither name matters to the poor slob who is busting his #$$ to try to pay the bills….it is rapidly becoming the reality of trying to push a chain up hill….. It is all ready blown up the money printers have just managed to keep that reality from the masses.

RonSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 2:11 pm

You are way off. There isn’t a dime’s difference between the “two” parties; there is only the Establishment. This is demonstrated by the number of Republican leaders who are working overtime to guarantee that Hillary wins in November. It is virtually impossible to get anywhere with a “third” party; that’s why Libertarian Ron Paul ran in the Republican ticket and Socialist Bernie Sanders is running as a Democrat. The only way to get our country back is to get enough of the voting public pissed off at both of the parties that they will vote for any outsider. In my opinion, it would be impossible to get a worse President than what we’ve had for the last seven+ years, except for Hillary, and this is our last chance (even if microscopic) to turn things around. If the voters don’t boot out the Establishment this year, it will never happen. I will ever vote for an Establishment candidate again, even if that means I “waste” my vote on a Libertarian or Constitution Party candidate.

kingscairnSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 8:28 pm

The Establishment RINO’s have been at the helm for a long time , they’ve had their chance, they had many good Americans behind them and they lied, abused, misled, cheated and disrespected us enough….they had the reigns but rather than run the stallion to win they beat him down, bled and ate him – what have you done for us lately kimosabe ?
You’re right, blow it up !

PhyllisoficalSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 11:00 pm

Not really sir, you appear to be overgeneralizing.

ChrisSunday, April 10, 2016 at 12:40 am

I second G!3’s take on this. If the elites didn’t think Trump had any policies (which is absolutely untrue-you need to read, listen more), why do they want to stop him if the party is growing all around him.

Trumpeteers do care. That is why they are so passionate and so vocal and have huge crowds. That proves you don’t understand this movement and will surprise you all the more. If you listen and understand the economy yourself, you would see, hear, that Trump knows exactly what to do and he says this all the time. It is people like you who choose who express their opinions and not the facts. Your opinions say to me you are a liberal progressive pumping fear of a change. This country needs to through out the elites just like Sweden and Germany will eventually do as well.

LenGMonday, April 4, 2016 at 12:55 pm

You said it Dan. The GOP is being handed a gift and seems to want to stick with its established breed of chaotic control. They completely miss the point.
Personally I am tired of the ‘two party system of Democracy’. Who elected those parties?! How dare the GOP elbow out the voice of its followers! Is that how democracy is supposed to work?

Dear Dr Weiss,
I firmly believe that Bill Clinton and George Soros are the key masterminds behind Donald Trump and his effort to totally destroy the Republican Party.
When you see how all of the Sheep are falling in line for the slaughter, one can then appreciate how Hitler conned the once proud and supposedly very intelligent German’s
into giving him total control of that Country. History does repeat itself, as,I believe, everything in life is just one Big sine wave. The key is to figuring out where we are on that curve at any given point in time.
Larry is right, a lot turmoil and very tough, but interesting times lie ahead.

Fred Weiser

G13ManMonday, April 4, 2016 at 4:51 pm

well i guess we are better off destroying the republicans then the USA, but they already got Bush , & obuma in office to continue their assault on destroying the USA ..

But if the republicans go , we will be a 1 party country and the politicians will have to prove they are good or we will replace them as needed . Its not like you can call their standing in question when all will be democratic .{ you do believe in democracy don’t you ? – then you are a democrat ! ]

hawk5000Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 8:02 pm

actually the united states is a republic I guess under that thinking that makes all of us republicans

CliffSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 10:19 am

Good point.

kingscairnSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 7:45 pm

The scenario mentioned will pretty much seal the deal for ‘ no more elections comrade ‘ !

PhyllisoficalSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 11:09 pm

Soros is supporting Kasich and trying to derail Trump.

StuMonday, April 4, 2016 at 8:26 am

The gop is transitioning into a party of the people. It’s the gopE that haven’t yet realized this. The mainly left-wing media play up this division, resulting in a perception of the gop’s demise. The only ones not buying it are the people, and that’s why I believe the newly re-energized gop will win in November. We’ll see what happens.

Chuck BurtonMonday, April 4, 2016 at 11:00 am

A good point, Stu. Since the Democrats came under the control of the Banks and the Elites, with no hope for the majority of us, that meant the Republican Party became our only rational fallback, other than revolution. We need to stir it up to keep it from being just a mirror image of the Democrats. Turn it into the Party of the People. Here, in Maryland, we elected a Republican Governor, in a state that is heavily registered Democrat. He has gotten generally high marks in his first two years, despite having to deal with a heavily Democrat legislature and bureaucracy. He is a businessman, not a lawyer and professional politician. That is also probably Donald Trump’s prime lure to voters, who have largely become the victims of the lawyer politicians who dominate our political system.

DanMonday, April 4, 2016 at 10:33 pm

Stu,

I think you are correct in that populist forces are trying to rise and topple the elites in both political parties this year, though in the GOP the control by the neocons and super rich is being more strongly threatened – and they seem to be in a panic over that and lashing back.

At the same time, Dr. Weiss and his maps illustrate how successful the neocons and super rich have been at keeping the GOP very competitive on state levels and in control of much of the country despite Democratic wins at the presidential level.

So this makes the GOP situation very interesting…. as the lower classes are not in step with this incessant war mongering and use of public funds to bail out the institutions of the rich .

We might end up with a three party system for a while as this shakes out. But a third party would need someone as charismatic and tough and rich as Trump going forward…which would be difficult to find. Populism has the energy and rage…but not the money.

LawrenceSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 9:29 am

Ok. That is a real long shot opinion. So who is the least of the worst candidates? Kasich is pure establishment and backs amnesty and gun control. Cruz is a Canadian blathering about being a Constitutionalist when it will take breaking a Constitutional law to even make him legal. Cruz’s wife is a globalist banker who helped write the North American Union treaty when she was with the Council on Foreign Relations. Cruz backs her and supported NAFTA and TPP, which were both American job killers. Not exactly conservative as he so much like to spout. Cruz is also a Bush made politician and all the Bushs are NWO, except grand pappy Prescott who was a banker for the Nazis.

PhyllisoficalSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 11:10 pm

Excellent

KenMonday, April 4, 2016 at 8:49 am

What is causing the split possibility and the rise of Trump is that too many GOP politicians have not done the job they promised in their campaigns.

kingscairnSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 7:48 pm

correct !

Bob SchubringMonday, April 4, 2016 at 9:10 am

George Washington wanted a No-Party System. He thought that the Whig and Federalist parties would be a corrupting influence.
The Whigs became the Democratic Republican Party.
Andrew Jackson became their hero when he invented ethnic cleansing, creating in Oklahoma what he called the Indian Territory and then abducting at gunpoint, thousands of Native Americans and sending them on forced marches to Oklahoma.

The Supreme Court ruled this act of undeclared war to be illegal.

Mr Jackson told the Court, “Let’s see you enforce it.”

The Court had law and morality on it’s side. Jackson had a standing army on his side. George Washington had not been dead 30 years, and the Constitutional system he’d built, had been subverted. Might was triumphing over right.

Another 30 years of that practice, and civil war broke out, followed by Reconstruction. The two new parties, Republicans and Democrats, agreed with each other to partition the electorate into voting blocs, end the shooting war, and leave state governments in peace, to govern as the voters saw fit.

Of course, this left the country split along racial lines. Ex-slaves were equal citizens under the Constitution…indeed, a state could have increased it’s number of Congressmen by two-fifthsf it chose to free all of it’s slaves, as a slave counted as three-fifths of a voter in the Census (none of the slave states tried that move but it would have been legal)…but under state law, could be segregated away from the rest of the population if a state wanted to do that. It took another ninety years, from war’s end, before Rosa Parks’ act of civil disobedience set off the Montgomery Bus Boycott and pushed states to end legal support for forced segregation.

Political parties were responsible for most of this lawless conduct. They operated behind the scenes, inventing issues over which election campaigns could be fought, while deciding serious issues in smoke-filled conference rooms. Openness in government is impossible, when two parties control everything and agree to make decisions in secret.

When all this upheaval ends in 2020, will political parties be obsolete?

kingscairnSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 7:50 pm

Small and limited government !

Terrell StanleyMonday, April 4, 2016 at 9:25 am

The majority of GOP voters have had to hold their noses and vote for establishment candidates. All of a sudden the front running non-establishment candidates appear on the scene and we actually have a choice.

Will LarimerMonday, April 4, 2016 at 9:44 am

This country started it’s death spiral in 1963, accelerated substantially in 1973 and has been plummeting toward tyranny (almost) unabated since then. The fact that sanders is coming hard at kilary shows the young people are in the game. That’s good. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Bernie’s plan is without merit and totally impossible without speeding us faster toward the valley floor below the cliff we’ve been kicked off. They are wrong in their solution but they seem to see the problem clearly (they can’t afford to carry us retired folks). The reason Trump is an issue at all is because of the lack of action we got from congress after we put sweat, blood and fortune ahead of ourselves and achieved a majority republican congress. The leaders of which immediately said they wanted to ‘work with’ the administration, after we worked so hard so congress could get rid of uhbammacare. Those that worked the hardest, gave the most and made sure to vote in droves, have been betrayed by those that think our work, needs and desires don’t matter. Mostly, we hate all establishment (progressive) republicans, and even Ted Cruz a hero among many of us, seems tainted by just being a part of them. The country will muddle through, the stock market is on wobbly legs and will readily fall when we start punching out in droves for cash to live. Do you remember the whig party? Neither does anybody else.

G13ManMonday, April 4, 2016 at 4:59 pm

actually the death spiral started in 1913 , it just takes a while for debt to crash a system .
And both parties voted for the tax act .. thereby giving politicians money to do as they wanted instead of what is best for the whole country..

kingscairnSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 7:51 pm

Wilson …. FDR…..

TomMonday, April 4, 2016 at 10:00 am

With Republicans controlling so much of state and local government outside of DC verses what the Democrats control, why does it seem that liberals are still calling all the shots? It appears to me that Republicans aren’t doing anything to counter liberal trends on the national level. The mostly liberal media seems to be in charge of creating everyone’s opinions for them and the Republicans just sit back and accept it all without much of a fight. Being a Conservative, I do not agree with the DC Republican establishment’s lackadaisical attitude toward putting much effort in confronting the liberal agenda, with which I wholeheartedly disagree with. I could vote for Trump or Cruz but not any Democrat ever nor any RINO like Romney, Bush or Kasich.

JayMonday, April 4, 2016 at 1:49 pm

Agreed! We as a nation are starting to see just how selfish and greedy the Republican party elites truly are. Meanwhile the Democratic party equivalents proudly flaunt their sins.
Unfortunately my fellow Americans, history shows us that this kind of evil NEVER surrenders it’s grasp without a tremendous fight. Nor is it put to flight by our courteous request.
None of us know what the future holds but the past has shown us in times like these the trying of men’s souls is eminent!
May history find that we were up to the task.
God bless.

Barrie BoatmanMonday, April 4, 2016 at 10:02 am

You say that ” Our two party system….would be in jeopardy”. As an observer from outside your country, I would say, so what? The present US system is dysfunctional so why would a third party make it worse? It seems to me that there is a right wing group (The Tea Party and adherents) and a left wing group ( Democrats). This leaves a hole in the centre which could well be filled by a new party. This centrist group, particularly if led by a non-establishment figure, could well win an election. Outside of the US we are deeply interested in what is going on in the strongest nation on earth. We hope that you sort things out and come up with better government. The world needs your leadership.

grover5995Monday, April 4, 2016 at 2:50 pm

Canada has seen the successful rise of a third party and they are doing OK, the new party actually has control in Alberta.

DaveTuesday, April 5, 2016 at 8:27 am

Barrie, I wish that what you say was true. The fact is that we have a conservative group of Republicans which is fighting an up hill battle. We have a liberal group who are the Democrats and we have the Republican Party in the middle trying to appeal to everyone. The Republican Party has lost it’s identity and that is why we are in such a mess. There is a line in a country song – “You gotta stand for something or you’ll fall for anything”, and that is where the Republican party is today!

kingscairnSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 8:19 pm

The TEA Party Patriots ARE the middle, they- WE – are the silent majority, the forgotten middle class that everyone loved to woo but wouldn’t listen to, the ones who sent their sons off to die in shit holes around the world as part of hair brained get connected get rich schemes under the guise of Patriotism and what’s best for America (yeah right), gave our children to the liberal bastion of ‘ higher indoctrination ‘ and now, as Lenin’s “useful idiots” are on opposite sides of the war….then we woke up and decided, in our geriatric burst of energy, to take our country back – just a little late I guess….. it’s going to be an uphill battle and from what I’ve seen, there’s plenty of Patriot fight in the verbiage but the “get up and go has got up and went” I guess !

Ted FMonday, April 4, 2016 at 10:09 am

You hit the nail on the head, the GOP (and for that matter the Democratic) party leaders or establishment want to pick the nominee, not the party members. Both parties were born out of pre civil war party splits, although the Democrats trace their party history back to Jefferson and Jackson. It was just such a situation that brought James K Polk to the White House, the original dark horse candidate at a contested convention.

Eagle495Monday, April 4, 2016 at 10:17 am

Dr. Weiss,

Ah, you left out some VERY IMPORTANT POINTS…… First of all, the names Republican and Democrat seem to change places on a regular long term basis….. The proper term would be Liberal Progressives and Conservatives…. The current Republicans are Conservatives and the Current Democrats are Progressive Liberals…..

That being the case, your readers should know that Lincoln was a Progressive Liberal as was Theodore Roosevelt….. Reagan was a Progressive Liberal until he became wealthy, then seemed to forget all the Union movements he was involved in that made him rich, whereupon, he became a Conservative…..

If you consider the Conservatives are the party of the Ultra Wealthy 3% and the Liberal Progressives are the party of the Common American citizen, the 97%, the movements of each become clearer……

At least in the past 100 years the Conservative cycles have seemed to last about 30 years and have both ended in Stock Market Collapses and Depressions (1929 and 2007)….. The Conservative Majorities in Congress have brought us GATT and NAFTA which shipped millions of good paying “Middle Class” jobs overseas….. They also removed Glass-Stegall from Law (Gramm/Leach/Blyle) in 1999, which allowed much the same types of trading that brought 1929 and the latest 2007….. They also packed the Supreme Court with Conservatives which allowed Citizens United which basically allows the richest 3% to buy any politician they want with unrestricted campaign funding (demonstrated by their gains in State Governorship and Legislatures)…

The latest Liberal Progressive Cycle lasted about 50 years (1932-1981) and brought the Greatest period of Economic and Manufacturing Expansion, the Greatest and Longest Stock Market rally, the Greatest Growth of the Middle Class and the greatest Increase in Living Standards of the average American Citizen in our history…..

Now with the above information, which would you vote for, aye? My gut is telling me that with the new low of the offerings of the Republican/Conservatives, even the most uneducated and dimwitted are beginning to put together the dotes and noticing that the Young People are leading, once again, a Political Revolution to the Left, much as our Grandparents did in 1932….. As the old saying goes: ‘Now which would you have in your wallet”,?…. :)

DonnieMonday, April 4, 2016 at 1:20 pm

Eagle…good response! So does this mean you have switched, and are now favoring the republicans? Good for you!

LawrenceSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 9:41 am

Where do you get that current Republicans are conservative? Cruz supports NAFTA and TPP and his wife is a globalist banker who helped write the NAU treaty when when was with the CFR. Graham, Ryan, Rubio and others ran on the conservative, even Tea Party ticket to get elected but have done anything but perform conservative. Truth be told the only difference between the DOC and the GOP is that the DOC wants to socialize at 100 mph and the GOP at 50 mph. They have both become big government advocates. And there are not enough conservatives around to do anything because of the rinos.

HowardMonday, April 4, 2016 at 10:40 am

Whoever listens to the people and answers their call for genuine representation and change will win theirs hearts and minds. We need someone who can solve our problems of genuine job growth, economic accountability and financial responsibility.

TomMonday, April 4, 2016 at 10:44 am

I can only speak for what I see here in Washington State and that is a Republican Party with a backbone. The party leader here (Susan Hutchinson) has no problem taking on our Democrat Governor and sometimes in not to flattering ways. I wish that milk toast McConnell and Ryan had half as much guts as she does.

The Federal Part of the party has little to no backbone and the people know it. The elites may control Washington DC but not the states. I also think you will see more states openly confronting the Feds such as Texas has as things continue to slide downhill.

As far as the Donald goes yes he can destroy the party but in my view only at the Federal level.

Just my 2 cents worth.

grover5995Monday, April 4, 2016 at 2:58 pm

Agreed, the GOP can survive quite nicely without the presidency so long as they control the states. Gerrymandering and voter suppression paid for by unlimited amounts of PAC money has set the stage for a political revolution in both parties.

JimMonday, April 4, 2016 at 10:46 am

Very big money is in control. We do not have 2 parties anymore. It would be nice if Soros would butt out. I do not think Bill Clinton and Soros are behind Trump in an attempt to destroy the Republicans. The elites of the Republican party are not interested in listening to the middle class. A big question is will the GOP disenfranchise all the voting, campaigns, and candidates at the convention? This election cycle will be full of deceit and fraud…..massive fraud, especially in larger dem cities like Baltimore. It is time for “regular people” to start making their voice louder.

MikeMonday, April 4, 2016 at 10:56 am

Can anyone even begin to imagine the massive mental depression that will sweep across America if Hillary Clinton reaches the White House? It’s not that people will dread her shrilly screaming at them non-stop for the next 4 years. It’s that they will realize, to their dread, that absolutely nothing is going to change for the foreseeable future. Hillary will do nothing at all to alter the financial system. America will enter a prolonged and dismal recession.

hawk5000Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 8:12 pm

on Bloomberg today the were talking about hillery Clinton and her temper how she threw a book at a secret sevice agent for driving too slow how she screams and yells at her own campaign people so bad some left for the other side , her throwing lamps at bill Clinton when she has her tantrums and how some young girl had her wrist twisted for doing something wrong and left crying because of shillery hillery

Bill YudtMonday, April 4, 2016 at 10:58 am

Both parties may enter death spirals. The working stiffs who collectively haven’t seen wage gains in thirty years and who are terrified of loss of jobs blame Dems as well as Reps. Neocon-inspired trillion-dollar, no-win wars that have prepared the ungoverned ground to grow the Islamic state and it’s terrorist strikes in America are the products of both Reps and Dems. Any wonder that many voters are looking for candidates who think way outside the box?

DavidMonday, April 4, 2016 at 11:01 am

All my kids, in their voting age 20s, support Sanders and feel that Clinton and the Republicans are completely corrupt and untrustworthy. Given the unlikelihood of Sanders getting nominated, I am curious to see how they handle that disappointment in how they vote in the future. This is the same age group that will be taking power in the next decade…

Old JackMonday, April 4, 2016 at 11:09 am

The american people are finally coming to realize that their unfettered belief in laissez-faire capitalism has unleashed its worst consequences with greed driving the economy. As the wealth is more and more concentrated in fewer and fewer hands this economy is bound to fail as the middle class becomes poorer and poorer. What else can explain massive money printing with no inflation and huge government debt expanding at unprecedented rates. It’s simple. A few people have so much money they simply cannot spend it fast enough for the economy to grow. If it were more evenly distributed more would circulate and all would be well. It is not the GOP that will dramatically change. It is the democrats. More and more will begin to follow Bernie Sanders’ thinking and philosophy. The rich will look for somewhere to hide and realizing that there is no place left on earth for them to go without the government totally stripping them of all their wealth, with the possible exceptions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand or Britain they may try to take control of the federal government by force triggering another civil war. Hopefully not in our lifetimes but the pain leading up to this could be horrific. The only real solution is for the ultra rich, power hungry, to realize that the secret to their success is to ensure the success of the peasants by redistributing more of the countries wealth through, god forbid, higher taxes to support more social benefits for the working class. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have said as much so listen to these guys before it’s too late. They’ll still be able to survive on a few hundred million a year rather than a billion.

PhyllisoficalSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 11:32 pm

But, Old Jack, we are witnessing the maturing of Socialist governments in Europe that are imploding also. This system clearly is not long lasting either and despair is embracing Europe as these heavily indebted countries crumble.

P.G. SundlingMonday, April 4, 2016 at 11:11 am

It’s not just the Republican Party disintegrating. In my upcoming novel, The Internet President: None of the Above, voters are so angry they break off into the occupy congress and tea party as separate parties. When I first wrote that section of the book in 2014 it seemed preposterous, but reality has moved closer to my fictional world. All it would take is the Trump scenario you outlined and Bernie Sanders losing only because of super delegates.

Evelyn CarpenterMonday, April 4, 2016 at 11:20 am

I have read about the Armstrong cycle predicting 109 years of socialism upon this Great and Beloved country of ours, I TOTALLY BELIEVE AND work around cycles in my investing so I brace myself for the awful consequences of prolonged changes to our way of life and I fear most for our young folks coming into this Hellish time,accepting bad times as if nothing else is possible as in the movie Dr. Zhivago! History proves otherwise…that Great leaders can and do alleviate and lessen harshness of economic situations!

Old JackMonday, April 4, 2016 at 11:41 am

The American people don’t understand the difference between socialism and social policy. Progressive, properly instituted and run social programs is NOT socialism but rather the result of successful, rational capitalism.

CliffSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 10:29 am

agreed.

BillMonday, April 4, 2016 at 11:35 am

Trump is not the problem but the result of the frustrations of Republican voters. The party is a mess, I’m not even sure what it stands for anymore. There are no true leader(s) of the party. I changed to Independent 8 years ago I was so frustrated with the party. We need people who can compromise for the good of the country and not necessarily only what they want. We we currently have results in no progress, even going backwards, as we have seen for probably about 12 years now. (at least)

R.J. FreschiMonday, April 4, 2016 at 11:48 am

I find it interesting that there’s constant speculation from the “mainstream media” that Trump could run as an Independent if he fails to win the party nomination. That would doubtless cost the Republicans at least the White House. But there’s no mention of the possibility that Bernie Sanders could also run as an Independent. Hillary Clinton’s pledged “super delagates” of Democratic Party insiders could cost Bernie the nomination. Would that make the Vermont senator angry enough to run as a Democratic Socialist? Would his supporters fail to support Ms. Clinton in protest?

Bill MarcusMonday, April 4, 2016 at 12:08 pm

The republican party is falling apart because the leadership is blatantly involved with supporting GIB money with disregard to the well being of the majority of their constituents.

Before Citizens United we had one man(Women) one vote… we now have one dollar one vote. We call that Fascism… and the American electorate is getting pretty pissed off about not having their well being taken care of.

The republican party can save itself by bringing this issue out to the public, and helping to fix it… but that would be counter to the Elites desire to suck every dollar they can away from the working class. The Wealthy seem to want to use and abuse the working class to get their profits, and do not want to provide their workers a living wage…. This will end badly… The Human Spirit will not be stepped on for too long before it rebels. And that does not require violence… Just look at what Gandhi was able to do.

The Republican a blatantly responsible for helping the corporations to export our manufacturing jobs overseas. They did this to De-fund the Democratic Party, as it was funded by mostly Labor Unions. When those jobs disappeared so did the Democrats funding. Now the Democrats get their funding from the same place the Republicans do. The Wealthy, the Corporations,and the special interests. We really have a one party system now…. and the American Electorate is waking up.

This Republic needs to be re-established. The Republicans need to wake up to the EVIL they have perpetrated on the greatest Nations the World has seen… Donald Trump is the indication that this needs to be done, before the Wealthy and Corporations turn into big brother and we have attained Aldus Huxley’s 1984.

Eagle495Monday, April 4, 2016 at 7:07 pm

Dear Bill,
Wow, there are two people that visit this site that know history and why our greatest gains have come under the leadership of Liberal Progressives… I never fail to be amazed at how many dimwits have bought into the Right Wing Propaganda that is so full of lies and benefits ONLY the wealthiest 3% in this country…

CliffSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 10:32 am

It’s amazing that liberals think that their party has all the answers. Look at the big cities run by Democrats and you can see the destruction of them. Wisconsin has been brought back from the dead by a Republican and this nation can also see a revival by a Republican. Democrats will do anything to be reelected, no matter what the consequences to this nation’s future.

P.G. SundlingMonday, April 4, 2016 at 9:38 pm

George Orwell did 1984. Huxley was brave new world.

NelsMonday, April 4, 2016 at 12:38 pm

The US has had one party rule since the days of Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt. The internationalist party has fielded two teams in every election, but hasn’t really had to care which team won, since the Republican team and the Democrat team were both firmly internationalist.

Now we see that a nationalist candidate is making big inroads into one team’s turf, and the internationalists are in a blind panic. Suddenly it matters to the internationalists which candidate wins, because for the first time in a generation, one candidate isn’t theirs.

To Americans, the fortunes of the Republican party or the Democrat party are immaterial. What matters to Americans is America, and both those parties are inimical to our interests. Thus, the support among Americans for a nationalist candidate, regardless of the interests of the Republican party.

LenGMonday, April 4, 2016 at 12:44 pm

Mike: It seems “the market” has a fair likelihood of crashing in the near term. Is it an assumption that we remain invested and then which stocks to own?
I may have missed the point.
I’m doing my style of sector rotation, far from “the market” (as if it were the only market) and into more real assets. Thanks, Len

Eagle495Monday, April 4, 2016 at 7:10 pm

LenG,
The market never fails under the Liberal Progressives… It has ALWAYS CRASHED after many years (usually about 30) of Conservative domination… Don’t believe me? Check out 1929 (Hoover-R) and 2007 (Cheney/bush-R) …..

MikeMonday, April 4, 2016 at 1:22 pm

When the Republican Party adopted the “Southern Strategy” to capture the votes of the bigoted hate mongering racists in America they signed a pact with the Devil. They went further into the political darkness when they aligned themselves with the intolerant Christian Fundamentalists. This was of course to use their votes to further their greed beyond all expectations economic policies. Now it seems they have truly created a Frankenstein with their monster consuming its masters. Many greedy corporate Republicans have been overthrown by embarrassingly ignorant Tea Partiers. Now Republicans must try to hide their most dangerous creation, Donald Trump. More so than his high unfavorable ratings he is not owned by corporate America. He even broke with the Party by not favoring the destruction of Social Security and Medicare and opposition to the job killing trade treaties. What’ the party of billionaires to do! How can the Party of the 0.01% capture 50.01% of the vote?

JamesMonday, April 4, 2016 at 5:56 pm

Wow Mike. Racist Southerners. Intolerant Christian Fundamentalists. Embarrassingly Ignorant Tea Partiers. Not too hard to see your political bent. What vitriol and venom. What HATE! What name calling! (a tactic the left usually uses right?) You sound a little bigoted yourself. Let me tell you something. There is just as much if not more racial hatred in the black community. NEWS FLASH! Best kept secret in America. You don’t have to be white to be a racist! As for Trump, his is the corporate/internationalist Republicans worst nightmare. One of their own gone rogue. Reminds me of my favorite line from Apocalypse Now, “Your methods have become unsound.” As much as I cringe sometimes when Donald speaks, he does make sense on a lot of issues and he will not blow up the world if he is elected. After all, he has to deal with Congress. Alas I don’t think he can win (I’m not sure if he wants to), but the answer is not turning the country over to Hillary and the Republocrats, or Bernie and the communists. Cruz is our only real hope. I am just concerned that he will cave and make a deal with the establishment. You know what would be a great ticket? Trump/Sanders as a third party run. Now THAT would have a chance of winning! I wonder if they have considered it? Just support constitutional law, religious and political freedom, and the right to bear arms, and even I could vote for that.

Eagle495Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 9:13 am

Actually, James, Mike is quite correct…… I would remind yoou that the Conservatives called FDR (the most elected President in our history) a “communist” also and yet he started the most successful economic revolution in our history which lasted about 50 years, until we forgot and let the Conservatives back into power, in 1981 and they, again, trashed the economy and led us to another Financial collapse in 2007… But hey, that is history found in most textbooks in America……

MikeTuesday, April 5, 2016 at 10:16 am

James

If it is of any consolation I have been kicked off a popular progressive blog for pointing out the fallacies of many of today’s liberal policies. The primary thing most people do not consider is rather than one side is right and the other wrong is that both sides are wrong.

DiogenesMonday, April 4, 2016 at 2:12 pm

I’m reading a lot of stupidity and bizarre interpolation of our present situation that seems to stem from ignorance and blind partisanship or hatred here. We are in a dire fiscal mess that is picking up speed on its slide down the slippery slope into socialized fascism and tyranny on a scale that may well dwarf that of Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany. This process started when political apparatchiks realized they could use public money, i.e. our taxes to buy or trade for votes to keep themselves and their cronies in power. Public immorality has affected private mores to the extent that there is very little shame left in our ever more coarsened civil lives. What was once universally scorned is now embraced. I see very little left worth emulating. I hope I die before the inevitable hell we are unleashing upon ourselves gets here. A sad end to the great vision our ancestors had 240 years ago, thrown away for rank cupidity and the failure to think of the disaster we leave for our children and those who follow. We damn all, even the innocent. We will not get much forgiveness from those we plunge into suffering.

OrigblessMonday, April 4, 2016 at 3:14 pm

The Festering Rot still remains.

bMonday, April 4, 2016 at 3:49 pm

They have been giving our jobs away for 45 years. 48 million on food stamps. time for a new Party TRUMP…2016

Bill NewellMonday, April 4, 2016 at 5:19 pm

Hi,
What difference has the majority of Republicans in each State made?????
We have copntrol of Congress, and the Senate, what have the republ;icans done..please tell me, they cannot get along, Obama iis ruing this country and the Republicans sit and twidde their thumbs…business as usual…all on the gravey train…most corrupt!

Politicians aree only out for them selves…very few good honest men anymore.

Bill

PeteMonday, April 4, 2016 at 5:40 pm

Sorry to say it but the Republican Party lost its balls years ago.Slush with not any fight left in them.Melting for years–

DMonday, April 4, 2016 at 6:17 pm

It’s not that complicated. The Republican establishment was tarnished at the end of the Bush presidency by a number of things, but discredited above all by its role in TARP and previously being unable or unwilling to stop the monetary and mortgage insanity that began under Clinton and Greenspan. The second TARP vote (fall 2008) is what doomed the McCain campaign and gave birth to the Tea Party.

Meanwhile, these and other voters handed the Republican Party control of most state governments and both the House and the Senate. The Republican establishment have done not much with these, making it clear that it has no stomach to make major changes to the growing double dictatorship in Washington: elected (an unrestrained president) and unelected (a lawless and politicized bureaucracy).

What’s the mystery? The frightening thing is that both normal partisan opposition and the checks-and-balances of Congress vis-a-vis the Presidency and the states vis-a-vis the federal government are starting to fail in a major way. This is how the ground is prepared for revolutions and civil wars.

Add to that a bicoastal elite (finance, tech, media, higher education) that largely supports the Clinton-Obama wing of the Democratic Party is more demonstrably out of touch, incompetent, greedy, and arrogant than any other elite in American history.

The Democrats are not immune to this, however. The coming bankruptcies of major local and state Democratic machines (starting with Detroit and Puerto Rico and next headed to Chicago), combined with the assault from the left, will splinter the party after the 2016 election.

WillMonday, April 4, 2016 at 7:47 pm

The Republicans may be getting to congress, but once there they are merely following in the footsteps of the democrats. Thus, Trump would only be reestablishing the two party system; which is what the Tea Party and Libritarians have been attempting to do for some time already.

JimTuesday, April 5, 2016 at 7:41 am

The democrats control the big cities and those are growing at the expense of the urban and rural areas. So while the land area of the United States seem to favor the Republicans that is not how the voters are distributed. If things keep going the way they are now and short of an outright revolution, if the Republicans lose this national election, the demographics are such that there will likely not ever be a serious Republican contender for the White House any time in the next couple of generations. It will take a complete economic or national security failure to change the direction we are headed. And if the Democrats hold onto the White House in November, that is the likely ending. Both the economy and the military are being destroyed by the Leftist/Progressive Democrats.

CliffSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 10:35 am

that is for sure

LarryTuesday, April 5, 2016 at 8:13 am

All of the political parties have moved to the left. The Democratic party is now the socialist/ communist party, the Republican party is the old Democratic party, and the Tea Party Republicans are the old Republican party. The voters are mad because we put the Republicans in power to stop Obama but they didn`t do a damn thing .

Eagle495Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 9:18 am

Larry,The Republicans ONLY job is to further enrich the wealthiest 3% and they have done that with great skill since the Republican Revolution in 1981…… Don’t you read the papers or watch the real T.V. News? Try turning off FOX……..:(

hawk 5000Thursday, April 7, 2016 at 4:25 pm

eagle uses different names here to try and confuse people by newS he means MSNBC NBC CNN WHO ARE ALL COMPLETELY LEFT LEANING

LarryTuesday, April 5, 2016 at 10:00 am

The Democrats only job is to turn this country into a socialist /communist country. I think that maybe you should read about the Hammonds, ranchers who are now serving time in prison for burning off their pasture, the BLM wants their land, or the Johnsons, who built a pond to WITH a permit and exceeded Wyoming specs . The EPA is FINING them daily in order to force them to remove the pond . Or the EPA,s waters of the US. They want to get control of your private property and if they win the lawsuit they will be able to tell you what to do on your property for 4500 feet if you have a stream or waterway with a high water mark. How about the BLM wanting to steal the water and grazing right out west or the USDA allowing beef/cattle into our country from countries with Hoof and Mouth disease which is an air borne disease that can travel in the air for miles. As for as reading or watching the news I watch and read several news letters and news sources and I make up me own mind about what is happening in our country.

AlexTuesday, April 5, 2016 at 1:08 pm

The strength of the GOP was fiscally conservative grass roots support . For decades , the elitist GOP insiders have promised fiscal responsibility and once elected have given us more and more centralized big government . We , the grass roots taxpayers are in revolt, and support Trump as a candidate who is not in some globalist’s pocket and will buck the system . I for one will simply NOT vote if Ryan emerges from the GOP convention as the brokered candidate . Perhaps it is time for a third , truly conservative and Constitutionally sensitive , party to emerge from the ashes of the GOP to back away from federalism and globalism .

ricThursday, April 7, 2016 at 5:37 pm

Time may be ripe for a third-party that represents all Americans headed up by either Bernie Trump, or by Donald Sanders. Because of the extreme polarization of the two existing parties, each of the two parties represents no more than half of the country. From an economic point of view, the Republican Party only represents and only work for the top half of the population of the super rich, and upper middle class people, while the Democratic Party essentially represents the poor and the lower-middle class people. This results in a zero-sum game society of win-lost rather than a win-win environment. The super-rich, and the upper-middle class people get to rip-off the poor, and the lower-middle class people when the Republicans win, and the poor, and the lower-middle class people get to take advantage of the rich people when the Democrats win. This not what the Founding Fathers intended for the US democracy, where half or more of the population are being rip-off and preyed upon by the other half at all times.

At first sight, a Bernie/Donald (or Donald/Bernie) ticket would appear to be an alliance of opposites, but it is more logical that what is happening now. Practically all societies consist of a combination of rich and poor peoples. Perhaps, in the distance future, societies can be formed with only rich people without anybody being poor. Being that the US now is consisted on both rich, poor, and middle-class people, it is logical that a third-party is needed to represent all of these people rich and poor, young and old. Neither the Republican nor the Democrat party is capable of working for all of these people rich and poor, young and old. That is why the time is ripe for a third party that is for all the peoples, by all the peoples, and of all the peoples, instead of existing parties which are for half the people, by half the people, and of half the people.

Right now, the middle-class gets the least support from either party. The Republican Party works to benefit the upper-rich at the expense of the middle-class workers, specially unionized middle-class workers. The Democratic Party works to benefit the poor leaving the middle-class people fending for themselves.

There are runaway welfare waste for both the poor and the super-rich, which can be categorized as welfare-for-the-poor, and welfare-for-the-super-rich. Most people know about the abuses existing in welfare-for-the-poor programs, but not many understand the huge amounts of waste in the welfare-for-the-super-rich programs. While most people heard of super-highways and bridges to nowhere that enrich the super-rich construction company owners, of runaway costs in defense projects, and of huge bailouts for the rich financial people, few understand that social entitlement programs also enrich the super-rich greatly in a welfare-for-the-super-rich manner. Take the Medicare and Medicaid program, for example, if the money trail is closely followed, it can be seen that the money of these programs only go to the rich without a single dime going to any patients. When was the last time patients walk out of the doctor’s office, hospital, or drug store with more case in their pockets than when these patients enter the doctor’s office, hospital, and drug stores? Never. If a patient walks into these places with twenty dollars in his pocket, he is lucky to walk out just this twenty dollars. The huge amounts of money paid out by these entitlement programs go directly to doctors, hospitals, drug store owners, and drug manufactures. The same with the food stamp welfare program. The poor starving poor people may get some food, but the money goes to the rich who own the food stores, and the food distribution companies. Similarly for the Social Security program. The money contributed by the working people before they retire into the Social Security program, together with the matching amounts contributed by the employers of the working people that are not self-employed go to the retirees of the program to be spent of the necessities of living such as food, rent, real estate taxes, so that most of the money eventually wind up in the rich people’s pockets. The reason there are a lot of poor people, and there are many middle-class people is that they don’t get to keep the cash to any extend to enable them to get rich. The reason people are rich and super-rich is that the money winds up going into their pocket sooner or later (the sooner with the help of trickle-down economic policies.) Trump and Sanders are familiar with how the rich rip-off the economy to line their pockets. In Trump’s first book “The Art of The Deal,” he mention the high cost overruns of public construction projects that were carried out by big contractors (who are rich.) Sanders talked about the income-gap where the super-rich pocketed practically all of the money printed since the start of the 2008 Great Recession.

Neither party can work to help more than half of the population. Each party helps their half of the population at the expense of the other half of the population. This is not what the Founding Fathers envisioned. A third-party which represents and work to help both halves is needed to create a win-win economy rather than a win-lost kind of dog eat dog Law of the Jungle type of society.

God bless American. Let a third-party succeed in make it great again.

Douglas A.JohnsonSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 11:33 am

Whoever said that DEMOCRACY was supposed to be convenient, easy and tidy? Only Benign Dictatorships are tight, simple,and efficient. Did you ever carry the fishbowl from the table to the sink, sloshing and slippery….and it slides out of your hands because you forgot how much excess water you had added in the intervening weeks……as it crashed to the floor? ………….That’s DEMOCRACY ! The basic laws of social, economic and religious Common Sense eventually grab hold…………and we soon find ourselves rescuing the Goldfish off the floor. Our current problem is that there’s no one with the WISDOM to pick up the fish off the floor……OR to prevent from dropping the fishbowl in the first place. One Nation under God? We’ll see. D.A.J.

John from OjaiSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 1:46 pm

Until we have publicly funded elections, both parties will be corrupted by Wall St., the military/industrial establishment, big pharma, fossil fuels, and insurance companies.

The rich need to support an economic distribution that works for everyone. Trump supporters think that immigrants are causing their problems. They need to learn that our military expenditures and trade deals that favor the rich are their problem.

In other words, less corruption and less military would make us as happy as the Scandinavian countries.

Bill YudtSaturday, April 9, 2016 at 2:40 pm

Some observations on taxation:
1. The original federal income tax applied to the top 1% of earners. The progressive tax rate is predicated on the business use of tax-funded infrastructure and services as factors of production that are consumed by business well beyond the consumption rates by mere consumers. This factor of production for business reality argues against any fairness of a flat tax.
2. The preferential capital gain tax rate was a product of the Reagan era reaction to the income tax on illusory inflation related capital “gains” that in effect were taxes on liquidations of capital. Now, without significant inflation, the current capital gains tax rate creates a tilted playing field for financial and physical capital and against labor (human capital). Were capital and labor taxed at equal rates, there would be less agitation over income inequality. After inflation adjustment of investments over the holding period, tax rates on capital and labor easily could be equalized. Capital and labor are equally useless without each other, so is there any convincing argument of any capital/labor split of tax liability other than 50:50?
3. American corporations pay higher tax rates because America has a bloated defense budget to defend at sea the international trade routes and on land the littoral transportation nodes and manufacturing plants of all multinational corporations. In fairness, non-American corporations should somehow pay for the defense of their tax-advantaged businesses rather than devolving the excessive cost of DOD operations onto working Americans. Mr. Trump seems to have gained considerable ground with this argument.
4. What is a fair maximum tax rate? I defer to Mr. Machiavelli who observed that, despite whatever effort and ingenuity one applies to the improvement of his position, half (50%) of what eventuates is a matter of luck. So, if one is lucky enough to be a U.S. citizen and to benefit from the great and on-going American legacy of rule of law, liberal culture and public/private wealth vs e.g. a citizen of Somalia with all his problems, would a top U.S. tax rate of 50% (to include state, local, excise, sales taxes…) be not unfair? From a certain perspective, re-paying the 50% contribution from one’s country is paying no tax at all, but rather like dividing the gain with the other party to the partnership!

kingscairnSunday, April 10, 2016 at 7:17 am

There is no difference, other than the agendas and ideologies of both parties, they both thrive off of big Government, it’s power and economic rewards are beholding to their benefactors where legislation, appointments, laws and competitive advantage and subsidies for projects (think about that one) are the name of the game – we, the ones with delusions of grandeur from a time long ago where we actually had a part in our destiny and not just the sheeple we’ve become ….. blah blah blah right ?
Arm yourselves and just ” mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”
I promise to be loyal and stand with and for you ….. will you be loyal and stand with and for me – brother ?

ScotSunday, April 10, 2016 at 10:26 am

Everything seems logical, except your recommendation of ETFs. Owning ETFS is like owning a basket of stocks in “street name”, which exposes investors to 3rd party intermediaries that could go poof in the next crisis. I know you know the benefit of owning stocks in your name, so why the ETF recommendation?

Brian FarmerSunday, April 10, 2016 at 10:45 pm

Mr. Weiss says that we have a two-party system based on democracy. But when I search our nation’s founding documents, I see no mention of democracy in either the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution.
Here is what some of the Founders said about democracy:
“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49%.” (Thomas Jefferson)
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.” (Benjamin Franklin)
“Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and in general have been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.” (James Madison)
“Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy that did not commit suicide.” (John Adams)
After signing the Constitution, a woman asked Benjamin Franklin what kind of government the Founders had created. He replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
A republic is representative government ruled by law; it protects individual rights. A democracy is government ruled by the majority; it is concerned only with what the group wants. Because democracies do not protect the rights of the individual, the Constitution states, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.” (Article IV, Section 4)
So, why does Mr. Weiss mistakenly believe that we have a two party system based on democracy democracy?

Evelyn CarpenterMonday, April 11, 2016 at 1:54 am

We must say it over and over that the candidates who get elected to office are EMPLOYEES of the people because in the past we have given them the idea that once elected they can do as they choose as is the case now as it seems! We have literally heaped royalty on their heads rather than expected for their paycheck! It seems to me that this thinking will forever weaken and destroy either party’s accomplishments and bring on destruction from within! I say both parties are guilty of negligent production of mandates given them by the voters! I vote for the person best suited to get the Job done regardless of party! I Love America far more than any ideioligy or Any personality! To me this the cement that binds any party and prevents parties from breaking apart! Expected performance is the key to good leadership and cohesion of party and country…it gets needed results. Thanks for listening to a grandmother who is extremely worried about the future of our youth!

DeeMonday, April 11, 2016 at 5:48 pm

I would prefer that they all keep the name of Jesus and His doctrine out of politics, hate groups etc. The doctrine of Jesus Christ is Love, Redemption, Salvation, being your brothers keeper etc. It is not a doctrine of hatred and intolerance for those who are not in our socio-economic group, who do not look like us, or who do not think like us. Our whole political system is a big failure, it only benefits the rich and large corporations while encouraging those on the bottom to fight amongst themselves and get poorer which leaves those at the top the leisure to get richer.